beautify your old garage door

You might think that repairing your own garage door is beyond your ability, but before you get in too much of a hurry, you should do some troubleshooting on your own. If you are reasonably experienced with using tools, you should be able to make repairs to your garage door motor. 

Diagnosing Problems with Your Motor

The first step in making a repair to your garage door motor is to recognize what is wrong. The first key to diagnosing a problem with your motor is to listen. If your motor sounds like it is running just fine,  the actual mechanical components of the motor are probably doing their job. The next thing to do is to watch how your door behaves. If it starts then stops then starts again, you likely have a problem with your gears. 

Making Repairs to Your Motor

Having a step-by-step process to make repairs to your motor will help you get everything in order.

1. Before you start to take things apart, you need to write down the make, model, and serial number of your garage door so that you can order replacement parts. It is best to wait to make repairs until you actually have the gears so that you don't have parts of your motor spread around your garage while you wait for spare parts. 

2. Once the parts arrive, start by taking off the the screws that hold the cover in place. 

3. Next you will want to remove two gears. You have a gear with cogs on the outside, and second helical gear, which has grooves that spiral around the outside of a cylinder. 

4. Next you insert the new gears. 

5. Put the cover back on.

6. Check to make sure that the garage door chain has the right tension. 

7. Test your garage door to make sure that it runs like it should. 

Your replacement gears should come with an instruction booklet that lists the tools you will need and diagrams to show how to complete each step of the above process. If you feel confident in your ability to follow instructions, you should have no problem completing a repair to your garage door motor on your own. On the other hand, if you feel like you might get yourself in trouble, you can always hire a garage door professional to make the repairs to your garage door for you. Speak with experts like America's Garage Doors LLC for more information.